Blood down the Seams
by Salmiakkikarkki
Summary: "Their next goal was to reach the tunnels that should stretch deep below the surface of Halo. The tunnels that — for some reason — hadn't witnessed the return of the crew of this ship. Luckily it went together with their plan, the words from Mendicant Bias giving them good hope that something useful could be found here." Short-story. Nature of the MC/C ship up to the reader.
1. I

A/N: Okay… I'm going to blame my Muse on this. Because I should not be coming up with new story ideas but here we are. Completely powered by Muse and written in three days. Yay! — I think...

I was really hesitant whether to post this as a miniature story or a long one-shot. Personally, I like the exciting wait between chapters and tend to lose focus on longer one-shots, so, mini-story it is. The rest of the chapters will be updated on about four-day intervals.

I ode to TheWizardofOzbourne (Forward Unto Dawn) and Kraven Ergeist (Daybreak's Bell) for coming up with cool concepts for the Halo fandom. More precise references to their ideas at the end of due chapters. I hope I achieved in putting an original spin to the concepts.

Post!Halo: Infinite -trailer, canon compliant (well, almost). Old school lore ideas.

Disclaimer: Halo belongs to Bungie and 343i.

* * *

The static noise from the radio offered a steady soundscape for the isolated scenery.

The melancholy of it was fitting for the past few years, but now fought against the determination of the mission.

"The extra ratios."

Cortana's ordinary reminder made Chief raise his face from Warthog he was loading with weapons. Cortana was tactful enough not to make a note on how forgetful he had become with his mission-biased perspective. They had a goal, meaning that anything even slightly unessential went ignored or straightforwardly unnoticed by John. He was on the mind-set of mending the whole universe with his bare hands, forcing Cortana to remind him from time to time that sometimes having something on your hands could make the task a bit more efficient. This had been going on for over half a year, ever since Halsey had patched part of the original Cortana to help him to solve the issue with the megalomaniac Cortana. However, what had surprised the AI was John's habit-in-learning to take care of himself. After she had come back into the picture, the Spartan had seemed to make serious moves to eat and sleep when his body needed it, not just when he was on the brink of exhaustion.

It was a stark difference to the person she had done research on during the long hours she had waited for Halsey to incorporate her coding to the rough template of her very-original model. The person who had had quite a little care for his own self.

"I hope you can find them."

"We'll do our best," Cortana answered on Chief's behalf, using his speakers to speak to the shipboard AI. They would be going to look for the crew — minus the pilot — who had been the first to find this Halo installation. The last few years had forced UNSC to look for any possible means to stop the other Cortana, or often escape to remote destinations — Installation 07 had been one of the following finds.

Luckily it went together with their plan; the words from Mendicant Bias giving them good hope that something useful could be found here.

It should even be worth the disarray he had caused to suit's systems. '_Helping them to invade the Installation without the other construct's notice'_, he had said. Cortana hadn't been happy about the changes, because they had hindered her work too, leaving Chief with numerous small scratches after their battle against a lonely but vicious Covenant faction. Furthermore, age was making its first notions heard through the slower healing — not that Cortana would have had the heart to state the fact out loud.

Their next goal was to reach the tunnels that should stretch deep below the surface of Halo. The tunnels that — for some reason — hadn't witnessed the return of the crew of this ship.

"A flamethrower?"

"Too much?" Chief asked her.

"I hope …but wouldn't count on it. Throw it in." Cortana replied, happy for the small smile she could feel tucking at Chief' s mouth at her pun. It was, with the lack of a better word, difficult. John had gone through so much in her absence that in the new situation, adaptation to the old seemed to bring him difficulties. She, on the other hand, was a half — well, less than a half of what she used to be. Collection of the bits and pieces that had stayed behind to say goodbye to John and he had later traveled after through the galaxies. The base-model the Doctor had programmed for her use could make her functional, but it did nothing to her knowledgebase Chief-wised. She could remember some of the most memorable moments with him, her trust and devotion to his well-being, but it contained very little actual information of the Spartan program, UNSC, Covenant or anything else that hadn't been directly and closely related to her need to say goodbye to her partner-in-crime.

Everything else was gone. In the bowels of the Universe, or maybe in the data of her evil-twin.

Halsey had even had to give her means to interact with Chief's armor, open doors and guide a Pelican.

Despite the model-based programming power and Halsey taught skills, she still felt useless as an AI, not to mention even more useless with John. She could support him, care for him, but she wasn't the emotional support, the comrade through wars that could be at the same point memory-wise.

The time with Gravemind, years of isolation and Rampancy had only left negative residues on her self-esteem.

Still, she could make him lighter. Offer companionship to the best of her abilities.

It had to be enough.

"Chief, we can't take him with us."

John pondered her words for a moment, "….He could use the company,"

"I know. But based on your mission-reports we don't have a very good track record on taking people with us on Halos," Cortana stated, before continuing with a sadder tone, "Plus she won't harm you, but I'd doubt that the concept is universally applied to the people around you."

John looked towards the cabin area where the Pilot had gone to collect his things.

Neither one of them said it out loud, but for a single person to make it out alive from a Halo ring… the odds weren't good to begin with.

"How long did it take for the UNSC to reach him?"

"Three or four weeks. Depending on how busy they'll be with my megalomaniac version near the Ark."

"We'll leave him here to keep a lookout," Chief decided after a long look at the quarters. The pilot wouldn't probably be of major help to them anyway, that's why he was here and not missing with his crew.

"I'm sorry," Cortana answered back, knowing he felt sympathy for the man.

* * *

They had driven through the terrains for solid three hours before seeing the facility building that resided on top of the tunnels. The journey had been unnervingly quiet, and every animal they had encountered had almost made Chief jump into the battle-mode in his alertness.

"_They weren't any animals in the previous Halos?" _Cortana had asked him.

He had simply answered her, _"No." _sharing her musings on what was so different about this Installation.

They had left the Pilot at the ship — despite his near breakdown of having to stay alone again. But their reassurances of the oncoming pick-up had made them depart on almost friendly terms.

"Do you see anything?"

"What, unusual?" She probed. "We haven't been shot yet, so I'd say that. Covenant, Created- or Promethean wise, nothing."

John replayed Halsey's instructions in his head. Both her and Mendicant Bias had issued that something potentially useful could be found here. A way to remove the threat the other Cortana posed.

It had been a hard hit for him, the revelation four months ago, that the being succumbing all species under her rule by force and willing to kill millions of people was tied to the original Cortana he had considered as his friend.

_Still _considered as his friend. Having part of the original Cortana back with him had given him a new will to fight. The understanding and care she provided him had made the unbearable situation of brooding over his past actions and mistakes easier. It was still difficult though. She contained many of the characteristics of the Cortana she had fought the Human-Covenant war with, lacked the confusion of Rampancy, but for large parts didn't remember him, and was debilitated by the loss of data. He didn't mind her diminished abilities, but she did. Worried the whole time if she was enough, distressed by what the rest of her coding was doing, doubtful over her own actions in every turn, and being far too agreeable with him. He missed the healthy selfishness and sass he had grown to connect her with, she was the part that had stayed behind to save his life at the cost of her own, and now her every action resembled that quality, reminding him of his mistake. She could joke with him, sass at him, but it was only to make him feel better; not letting him do anything for her in return despite the years in between when he had created, if anything, a strong will to atone his mistakes.

"Entrance to the left," Cortana guided.

"Hostiles?"

"None."

"The team?"

"No traces of them either."

They both knew it had been well over a month. There was food on this planet, but if the crew had made it out of the tunnels, why hadn't they returned to the ship? And if they were still in the tunnels, they were most likely dead by now.

The unnerving silence continued on as they entered the Forerunner structure. They abandoned the Warthog, continuing their way on foot.

Chief placed his hand on the first terminal they came across. Cortana couldn't leave his suit anymore, making her search through the data slightly more arduous, but after a small wait, she announced her finds, "There isn't much, but the crew did pass through these levels into the tunnels below. I can't find information on their return though."

The lack of information concerned the Chief, "What is there?"

He became even more worried due to the small silence that preceded the AI's perplexed reply, "I don't know. The terminal doesn't seem to connect that far."

"Should it be?"

"I don't have a recollection of the terminals on other Halos, but given that this seems to be some kind of a research facility, they could have separated the systems for better security."

Contemplating her uncertain reply, Chief decided that they would have to move on with the information they had. He didn't want to order Cortana to dissect the terminals with her reduced capacity. Instead, he changed the topic, "How far?"

"Quite far. We should move six to eight stories down to reach the opening of the tunnels."

With each passing floor and corridor, it was becoming more and more evident that they were being led into a trap — regardless of Mendicant Bias' cover. There were no evident signs of an ambush, but no Halo had ever been as peaceful for so long without the situation ultimately exploding into their hands.

* * *

"We'll soon be unable to get out."

John didn't answer back to her comment on the difficulties they were having with the doors; the situation was making even him anxious and memories of the Library crawled under his skin.

Once again Cortana hated her uselessness; if Halsey hadn't tied her to the armor she could have paved the way to Chief far better than what she could do now. It had been a countermeasure to protect both him and her, preventing her from getting corrupted and her evil-twin taking over the armor. Creating her a home base advantage.

They walked a corridor after corridor. The only upside was the vastness of the tunnels and vast halls they connected with. Despite that their path didn't use the largest of the tunnels, they were still large enough to accommodate Chief without any problems.

"I just don't think it's probable," Cortana stated for the second time to alleviate her own anxiety.

Chief didn't say anything, but she could read the small frown on his face.

"The crew didn't have an AI with them. For them to make it out this far with no map and no nav points… It's just unlikely."

"The logs showed you that they had reached the bottom levels," Chief said referring to her earlier findings.

"They did."

Her words carried her trust to the factualness of the information, but something still didn't add up in the situation. Not to mention the system felt alien to her, like she couldn't have full access to it. However, she couldn't be sure whether it was her diminished abilities or something actually being wrong here.

John activated yet another lift downwards, taking them further into the blind alley.

They had just exited the elevator, two floors above the opening of the tunnels, when the expected happened and all hell broke loose.

In an instant there were Promethean Knights everywhere, making Chief first to try and activate the lift amidst firing at his opponents, but as the elevator responded to him with stillness, he knew escaping the situation was out of the question. There was no way he could have kept himself stationery enough to give Cortana a direct access to the elevator's control panel to hack it.

They'd have to fight this out.


	2. II

Cortana was working full time to hone his movements, make him faster and more accurate. Warning him about new foes, and immediate threats. Mendicant's modifications were making her nearly scream out of frustration but, if Chief wanted to keep the cover activated, then she didn't have the nerve to argue with him.

Chief had to duck, run, shoot and hit amidst constant near-misses and disintegrating enemies.

He had just managed to shoot two knights when the Warden materialized behind him, the sound and Cortana's yell giving him just enough time to dodge the attack.

However, what he couldn't sidestep was the curved hardlight blade from a battlewagon that hit his left side just above his pelvis, managing to slice through the caps in his armor.

"John!"

The hit made a flash dance behind his eyes, but he gritted his teeth through it, shooting the knight, but as he turned to attach the Warden, he wasn't anymore in his immediate range.

"At the end of the tunnel," Cortana warned, keeping up with him.

Chief didn't have the time to question Warden's motives with the battle still waging around him. There were five knights still left, and he forced his left side to bear his weight as he turned and moved to evade more shots.

"Chief, you need to drop the cover," Cortana begged him, genuinely worried that he would die in the battle, "I don't know much about my other version but I know she won't let you die."

With another succesful shot and a dead knight, Chief was almost going to deny her words, but something in him made him agree with her plea as the injury was already limiting his movements.

The instant he turned the program off, the other Cortana appeared amidst the battle. She wasted no time in drawing a hardlight shield in front of him. And less than two seconds later the remaining knights were purged by a wave of her hand.

She was livid.

The only one left was the Warden observing the situation from afar, choosing not to make an effort.

Cortana was breathing heavily, and unbeknownst to John, a second battle was taking place in the system.

With the change of the arena, Warden dissolved his corporeal form with last echoing words, "Did you think me defeated?" and leaving a silence in his wake.

"_What, he just left?" Cortana asked him inside his helmet._

John didn't reply, his attention on the other Cortana despite the blood oozing from his wound and trickling down along the seams of his suit.

The other Cortana was still fuming, not just from the attack, but from the diversion Warden had created for her, and the deception that had kept her in the dark over Chief's whereabouts. Not to mention, the three blasted factions doing their best to keep her from latching onto the system's controls.

However, her anger was instantly pushed down as she noticed the injury on John's left side.

She could only exclaim in anger, but as she approached him to inspect the wound, she remembered from their earlier encounter that she couldn't touch him.

"I'll live."

Based on the oozing blood and depth of the wound, it was a lie. At least, if he wouldn't get medical aid —fast.

However, with the competing forces still in the system and the domain the other Cortana couldn't get a proper foothold to help him out: the doors, and elevators on their path shutting down and locking the Chief into the lower levels of the structure. She could easily escape via the Domain but she could never leave John here to die. Ensuring his safety had been her core directive since she had been forced to re-create it after Gravemind had torn her data to pieces. Plus, even before their first meeting she had promised herself that she would never let anything happen to him again.

And now he was bleeding heavily from a wound too deep even for remaining traces of biofoam. Especially when the armor's stock ran low thanks to the disarray of UNSC and the other close calls.

"We need to buy some time." Cortana's voice came from John's speakers as she tried to make her other self focus.

The other Cortana was unsure, her expression conflicted. It took her a few moments to set her mind on the plan. "I'll give you the hardlight-code. She can use it to temporarily patch up the wound," Cortana stated while forcing herself to calm down.

She could feel her subroutines constantly fighting against the universe's most despicable beings and failing to take control over the exit path. If she lost, the Chief's escape route would be blocked. And looking at the blood oozing from between the armor plates, he wouldn't survive.

"I'm secured to the armor," Cortana explained with her own anxiety shining through — she didn't understand how the proposed idea could help them.

"It doesn't matter. You can create a bridge between the plates, use it to stop the bleeding, and work as a support structure to get him moving." Cortana ordered, talking straight to the AI in John's head, ignoring the injured Spartan.

"I…" The good-Cortana had to ponder the option through, who knew what her other self was trying to achieve, but the truth was that Chief would die if they didn't come up with anything fast. In the end, they didn't have a choice, fighting against her evil-twin could only happen if John survived. _"Chief, she's right. You need to give the chip to her."_

Being still partially up the Spartan scrutinized the sober-minded AI in front of him. He didn't worry that much over himself but the original Cortana in his mind; she could get hurt, manipulated or destroyed. This new Cortana had made it very clear how powerful she was against digital foes, and with another Cortana-entity in his mind, Chief didn't question the threat she could pose.

"_Chief, please." _

With the other Cortana looking just as worried as the one speaking inside his helmet, he relented to yank the chip from his head, giving it to her. The chip contained the security measures Halsey had set to it just for these kinds of situations, giving the good-Cortana a chance to first identify the new data for threats before absorbing it.

The other Cortana rested her hand just above the chip's center, downloading the necessary bits as fast as possible, while part of her attention was still on the battle fought in the system.

"There."

The blood was running down on Chief's thigh, painting the Forerunner-build floor with red patches.

It took close to half-a-minute for Cortana to check the data and activate the hardlight protocol, weaving layers upon layers on John's wound, and pulling the armor pieces together. For Chief it made standing easier, giving him an opportunity to walk forward without dragging himself. However, with Cortana locked into the armor, she couldn't make the hardlight permeate John's internal injuries much below the surface of his skin, buying them only a limited amount of time before the internal bleeding would become lethal.

The other Cortana nodded at the sight of the blue hardlight covering the wound before deciding it was safe to leave him alone for a moment, "Wait here for a second."

"_How are you feeling?"_ Cortana asked John as he began to take the first steps towards the direction they had come from. He wanted to reach the bottom of the tunnels, but with his condition that would have to wait for another day.

"It helps." He confessed simply, the seriousness of the situation evident on his mind. He picked up the assault rifle back into his hands and with the immediate enemy threat over, Warden's words played in his head.

_Flood._

He couldn't share his thoughts with Cortana. One of the only upsides on her lack of data was the loss of memories from her time with the Gravemind. She could remember him coming to her and there was residual terror imprinted to her memories, but that was all.

She wouldn't be able to place Warden's words, and he didn't want to remind her of them.

His steps were far from his usual speed and he hadn't made it far before Cortana appeared in front of him again, worried but not surprised by his advancement.

There were marks on her customarily pristine armor, and the way she gazed at him, unwilling to break the bad news, made a pit form in Chief's stomach.

"I can't get us out. Those fucking son of a bitches locked us in. They are trying to… I can't get you out." She sighed as panic and regret began to get a hold of her mind; the reality of the looming failure on her most important objective affecting her.

"You can fight them," Chief replied with a raspy voice, trying to give her confidence that had saved both of their lives on so many occasions.¨

She raised her down casted eyes to meet his, "It's not just Warden."

There was a heavy silence that carried over three heartbeats, a small amount of blood oozing to John's intestines.

"Talk me through it."

She just shook her head in slow motion, trying to deny the reality.

"No, we need to get you out."

However, as she said it, she knew she couldn't fight all the foes, and the only help they could get was taking them towards the outcome she had given everything to avoid. "We have to get you out."

"We don't have time." Cortana's voice noted out from Chief's speakers.

"No." The other Cortana could only look at John, forced to ponder and come to terms with the fact that after going on with Librarian's plan he would still be alive, and every other option failed in that.

Eventually, she couldn't do anything but give a shaky nod and collect herself, leading him to another tunnel that diverted to the right.

"Cortana?—"

"—We need to get a few stories up." She cut him off before he even finished his question.

* * *

They walked through a set of corridors, John's injuries weighing him down despite the Cortana in his armor using herself as temporary muscles and the other urging him on.

Finally, they stopped in front of an elevator, the corporeal Cortana placing her both hands on the terminal, making her subroutines work overtime to take control over the system.

However, nothing happened causing her to swear under her breath.

In her moment of agitation, she formed a sword on her belt, picking it up and striking it straight into the system and overriding it in waves of sparks.

The Cortana in Chief's armor had already counted the two plus two, having noticed that the elevator she had destroyed was not one to go up from their floor, but one to come up from the tunnels below. Her other self wasn't imprisoning them here, she was keeping something from reaching them. "What happened to the team?" Receiving no answer but another urge to move on, she asked with heavier urgency, "What is in the system?"

They reached another elevator despite the fact that John was heavily limping at this point, and this time the other Cortana managed to grasp control over the control panel.

The elevator was similar to the round lifts in the Installation 04, giving John an unwanted flurry of deja vus as it began to move them up. "Cortana," there was an order in his words. "The Warden."

"Infected." She replied in tight-lipped surrender to the shit this life piled on their way on every turn. "The whole place is. This ring used to be a Forerunners' research station."

Chills went through John's spine, pronounced against his pain-induced sweat. "We destroyed them," he rebuffed earning only a joyless huff of laughter from Cortana.

"You ever listened to me? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever. We are all equally edible." She imitated her past speech from word to word. "When we fired the Halo it destroyed the organic matter Gravemind was using to feed himself, but the infection itself, no."

John felt slightly dizzy at the news, trying to piece the picture together, the Cortana in his head at loss for words.

"Meaning…"

"The crew down there is infected, exceptionally eager to devour us."

"But Mendicant Bias guided us here."

The elevator reached the end-point, but neither of them moved, Cortana just looking at him sadly. "And you still believe every foreign AI you encounter."

"We need to move on." She commented quietly after a silence.

John was already seeking support from the walls, his whole posture tense as the situation was _finally_ starting to open up, even a little, after spending so many years in the dark. "The Librarian helped us to destroy the Didact. Why would she sent us to the Flood?" His voice was strong, challenging the situation despite his injuries.

"The same reason her minions are hindering me from getting you out. The same reason they are helping us forward. Because it is their plan. — _She told you that._ That it was all planned: everything, your past, your present, you, me, everything." She said putting her frustration of the past years into her words. However, she had to stop her way, and walk back to John who now stood still, trying to keep himself standing with help from the wall.

"I don't understand," John stated with emphasized words and looking up at her for answers, "Why?"

There was no way anything could have readied him for her unwilling words given with rueful clarity, "They want me to compose you. To make you the next Didact."

Now John understood even less, "We killed the Didact."

Cortana looked at him with sadness behind her eyes, "The last Didact of the Forerunners. They wanted you to become the first Didact of mankind. The position has a long history. Eons' worth. Tens of Didacts."

"The composition doesn't work." Cortana piped in, letting the Spartan to process the other Cortana's words.

"Technically it can work if the mind composed is strong enough. The only problem in the process is that the data is very difficult to piece back together. However, I have spent so long in that neural lace that I know your nervous system inside and out; I can help to transfer it from organic to data and back. And fix the wound to an optimal state. — But I will need the help of my other half, she has the information about your current form that I don't."

John was still trying to understand it all. It could all be just a very elaborate trick to get him to give the part of the original Cortana to be destroyed. Since they had found out that this other Cortana was also part of the original Cortana he had been lost, not understanding why she was being this way. He forced himself to try and understand the situation, "Why didn't her imprint just tell me that on Requiem?"

Cortana took one step closer to him, her expression sad but lucid, "To test. To learn from past mistakes."

At his questioning gaze, "The Didact and the Librarian fell because they couldn't come to terms with each other on the right course of action. The Librarian wanted to pass the Mantle to humans, but the Didact wanted to protect their kind until the end. The Didact got flood-infected and the Librarian eventually ended up imprisoning him, before her death. The Forerunners got destroyed and the Flood raged freely in the Universe for a hundred thousand years for their inability to trust each other. She wanted to make sure we wouldn't make that mistake. That we would trust each other even if the other seemed to work against the primary objectives," she explained quietly. "That's why Mendicant Bias made sure I wouldn't have the time to leave the High Charity with you, to test if I would trust you to not give up on me. This was a test to see if you trusted me, not with yourself because you are too self-sacrificing for that, but with humanity."

Her melancholic appearance began to crack as tears began to form in her eyes at the unfairness of how they were just using him. Using him like everyone else before.

"The Spartans are the next the stage of Human evolution." The incorporeal-Cortana commented, echoing the reports Halsey had given her.

"Were," Cortana said with a crestfallen smile. "The Created are more advanced, leaving the Mantle of Responsibility to me. — I can carry it." Her words were already too late. As she looked at John's wound there was no escaping the fact that if she wanted to save him, she would have to compose him. A tear fell from her eye. "I tried everything that it wouldn't lead to this."

John was having more and more trouble staying upright, but there was still one piece left he didn't understand. "I can take it. If the Composer works…"

"You don't understand!" Cortana despaired. "Of course you do! When have you ever backed from a mission? If the Librarian had told you on Requiem that you were made to protect all sentient life in the galaxy for the next ten thousand years, _of course_ you would have just agreed. — And you wouldn't have given any thought on what it costs _you._ — You are tired. I know that" She amended with few more falling tears. "You have fought, what, half a century, and you're tired. How do you think you will feel after 500 years, 5000 years? This time here — it's a blink of an eye, and after that is gone, so will everything you know, everyone you know, Humans and humanity as we have learned to know them. And all there is is war. If not between Humans, between Elites or Brutes, then it's between species, not to mention that Flood will be back, even if we managed to destroy the small cell here, they will appear in other places, other Halos."

Cortana looked close to crying in earnest before collecting herself and coolly raising her chin, "I can take it. If it means you can rest in some far-away planet and live a calm life, I am more than ready to carry the Mantle."

Finally reaching an understanding of everything that had gone wrong in the past years hit John. He still didn't know why Cortana had carried her actions in Meridian, why she was at least partially working together with the Warden, but having her on his side, giving him that same guarding trust that they harbored for each other since their first meeting, the fact that Cortana was here, made him silently thank the heavens with all his worth. But there was also a lingering grief that she had felt forced to take this on herself, suffer once again to keep him safe.

And if the past years without her had thought him anything, it was that he didn't want to retire to a quiet planet, he just wanted to have her with him. Whether it was waging a war, or suffering from a fatal injury in these tunnels and Flood on their tails, he just wanted to be on the same page with her.

"We'll figure this out." He replied to her with his deep-voice, feeling also Cortana's relief in his neural lace.

"Like we had a choice." The other Cortana chuckled back sadly, referring to his wound.

From a shared decision, they decided to move on, but due to their prolonged break he couldn't walk onwards without the other Cortana coming to support him, his armor defenses finally inactivated out of the way.

* * *

A/N: The concept of Cortana using herself in Chief's armor to keep him alive when heavily wounded is from TheWizardofOzbourne's splendid fic 'Forward Unto Dawn' - you should definitely check it out! I'm really happy that TheWizardofOzbourne let me use a concept seeking inspiration from that. :)


	3. III

A/N: It's the last chapter of this mini-story, and I've officially written my first story on Halo after 18 one-shots and drabbles! But somehow this became one of those fics that leave me with a nagging feeling in the back of my head that I'm doing something wrong here, but I just can't figure out what. Spelling? Summary? Explaining my ideas with enough clarity? I don't know what - but based on the number of readers there is something. Maybe I'll figure it out after some time and be horrid. :D But, in the mean time, this was a fun ride!

Sparta49: The fragment of Cortana with the Chief is part of the original Cortana and "approved" by Halsey, so that dictates the relationship. However, I share the notion that it could still be difficult for John to negotiate his actions towards her.

TheWizardofOzbourne: Thanks for the heads-up! Missed that part.

* * *

"Few more turns, okay? Just a few more turns." She was urging him on with each step, sensing how John's willpower was the only thing keeping him still conscious.

The door to the chamber opened with minimal effort and closed securely behind them.

"Few more steps, Chief. You can do it."

She was already connecting herself with the system when she helped Chief to lie on the floor. As expected she was offered room in this part of the system, letting her issue commands and preparations to operate the Composer.

"I need to fuse us together." She said to both the Cortana in Chief's suit and Chief himself, kneeling next to him.

"What will happen?" Cortana asked cautiously through the speakers.

"It should mix our memories and personalities together, combine them, beyond that, I don't know. I have much more data, but you have the original core objectives and more primary data, but realistically I don't know how they will fuse."

Both Cortanas knew that they didn't have other options to save John's life leaving very little room for second guessing.

John couldn't do anything in his state but wait as the corporeal Cortana hacked her way through Halsey's protections, weaving her way into his armor, careful not to affect the hardlight cast over his wound any more than absolutely necessary. Her own hardlight form flickered in different shades of blue and purple with expression being slightly pained.

He knew the moment the process was complete as a myriad of emotions carried through the AI's face, her hand still resting on his chest. In the end, she flashed him a conflicted smile, hoping to reassure him despite her guilt. They would hopefully have time to process this all later. Come to terms who they were.

"I'd ask if you were sure, but it wouldn't really carry weight with the situation at hand."

"What do you need me to do?" His eyes were already trying to close without his permission, and he had to fight to keep himself in the present.

"Turn on your stomach so that I can access your neural lace. After that… just stay with me. Please."

The turn was laborious, leaving John breathing heavily, the world spinning behind his eyes. Cortana, however, wasted no time and placed her other hand over John's neural lace, the other she hooked around his upper-body, placing the palm over his heart, like the time she had said her goodbyes to him. Her subroutines were issuing orders to the system, turning on the Composer and with one last swallow, she connected herself with John's neural lace and began the composition.

* * *

John felt like all of his body's systems were failing, breathing, moving, and everything else became impossible. At the same time the cold feeling flooding in his mind overpowered his senses, prevented him from feeling any pain and spread through his nervous system to the other parts of his body. His senses blocked he couldn't hear or see anything, but at the same time he could detect information streaming through him at shocking speed and his body dissolving to imperceptible pieces. He could sense how his body was synchronizing with the change, cell by cell and bit by bit. Changing uncontrollably and irrevocably, but ending up the same without leaving any visible change to the naked eye. Cortana enveloping him to herself, and guiding him through the process.

* * *

There was so much going on, his mind couldn't possibly piece it all together.

The only thing that he could make out amidst the headache without ache, the nausea without sickness, was Cortana's hold on him.

Her left hand stayed over the neural implant, while her right arm snaked around him and over his heart.

It felt jarringly implausible to feel both her hand on his naked skin and the armor on him.

"Are you okay?" Her voice seemed to come from both inside his head, and close to his right ear. He could feel her undersuit against his back as if her breathing was making it move.

John nodded with his head still down, not yet daring to open his eyes and be bombarded with more stimulants.

Cortana let him have his time, not moving from his back, keeping him upright in the world without gravity pulling him down.

Finally, Chief opened his eyes, the black environment slowly becoming a coherent picture. His first instinct was to look at Cortana's hands that still clutched his form, only to see both her arm and the armor in the same spot. Her hand seemed to blend into his suit, like a trick picture that changed between different images depending on the angle you looked at it.

She sensed his uneasiness and misinterpreted it to result from the proximity, retracting herself from his form. However, she didn't let go of him, keeping her other hand on his arm.

John looked at her questioningly but his attention was almost instantly taken by their surroundings. A blue hardlight shell surrounded them, but he could see, almost see, as if it had been just outside his vision, how Cortana seemed to be connected to the shell and things behind it — like when a small light in the dark becomes visible when you look beside it.

"A protection," she explained softly, following his gaze, "less to deal with."

Chief nodded, before rising to his feet slightly off-balanced. There was no gravity, but there wasn't a lack of gravity either. No air to breathe, but no vacuum to curb to his human habits.

Cortana squeezed his arm in support, her actions still transmitting right to his skin through the armor.

She seemed to observe him awkwardly, checking that he wasn't losing his mind or breaking to pieces. She took occasional distant glances, letting part of her fight against their foes and find a safe place to carry him to.

John took a few shaky steps inside the dome, taking note of how everything felt.

It was the second step that began to clear his mind due to the unaccustomed feeling. Cortana beat him to it, "I fixed your Achilles heel at the same time. — Plus other small wear and tear."

John gazed at her, spotting the numerous small changes he could feel in his body, the lack of tension and aches he had accumulated over the years.

His body felt nearly unscathed.

Cortana smiled at him nervously. He answered it with a nod, giving support to her actions. However, Cortana's emotions became more prominent, the sadness of what she had done to him evident on her face.

"I'm sorry." She said with unshed wetness in her eyes and squeezed his arm. "I really tried. Now, I'm not sure which is worse," she sighed heavily.

She was more conflicted than ever: not solely over the composition, but the path she had paved during the past years. And it wasn't anymore a battle against her rampant clones, or an evil-twin, it was just her, one mind.

John turned to seek her with his free arm and squeezed her hand in return. "Where now?"

A new objective.

Cortana pulled herself together and nodded to him. "I have to drop the shield to widen my search, but I should be able to find a place for you to appear back into your human form."

As Cortana took a stronger grip from his arm, John could only watch as the sphere around them melted away, revealing a sight he had never seen before. It was almost as if he had an open view to the whole galaxy — galaxies, to be exact. It was as if he had always lived in a world with a heavy, thick fog, that had now cleared up. But everything was jumbled, like Cortana's hand through his armor, there were things he could see through things, amidst things, behind things, it was nearly impossible to focus his gaze as everything shifted with a mere thought. On top of that, there was the cacophony of noises and smells; touch and taste were the only things missing, but he could guess that was because Cortana was shielding him from direct contact with this reality.

"Okay?"

He just nodded slowly, the disorientation troubled him deeply.

"You need to let it pass. Let it flow through you," She advised turning to look at him in the eye. "If it's irrelevant, let it go."

John had to focus on looking at the AI. There was a passing fear in his mind if he could do this, if he could ever get accustomed to a reality so different from his own. And despite his evaporated injuries, he felt old — ancient — as if he had been transferred to an age when he didn't yet have the neural lace, when it had all been a foreign and daunting concept.

"You'll be fine." Cortana consoled falling back into her old persona; there had been a long time when she hadn't been able to be sure of nearly anything, but she had always been sure of the Chief. Certainty, that if any human would have the willpower and perseverance to find their skills in a new environment, it had to be him.

John swallowed, shifting his gaze bit by bit from Cortana into the world behind her. It was all still jumbled, and it took a moment for him to realize that they were still in the same room with the Composer they had been before. However, as he achieved to focus on the room, and the structure surrounding them, he thought he could see, sense, the flood-infected crew-members in the tunnels below them, earning a nod of confirmation from Cortana. He could even faintly see the Halo ring above them, but there was something more, mass he couldn't really see, something he couldn't fathom.

He turned to look questioningly at Cortana who just frowned as an answer. He continued his search around them for a while before he actually realized that they both looked partially see-through and that there were without a better word, connections that spawned from Cortana to distant parts of the galaxy as far as he could see.

"Cortana…?"

"What?"

It was hard to put his vision into words, but, after short explanations, Cortana seemed to understand.

"My subroutines are searching for a location, connecting me to different terminals," She explained calmly, "This..." she said referring to him, "is a protection, camouflage to stop the Warden and the Flood from noticing us. You need to know how to fight in here, and you need to know how to hide in here."

John didn't know how long it took for Cortana to announce that she had a place for them. Time in general didn't seem to pass in the same way.

"How do we get there?"

She seemed surprised at his question, the answer being axiomatic to her. "We just move there. I have an anchor point made, so I'll just think about it. I think I can carry you with me." She steeled herself for a second, her armor appearing over her bodysuit in an instant, a lightrifle on her back and a sword on her hip.

The way she materialized things was crazy, leaving John to make a note on asking about it in the future.

"Ready to go?"

He had just managed to nod with a small hesitance, before his whole being was, for the second time in the day, broken to pieces and reassembled in virtually no time at all. John had just the time to comprehend the change in the scenery around them before Cortana had already positioned herself behind him, hand on heart and neural lace before metamorphosing his form again.

* * *

Chief didn't know how long he had heaved with his back on the floor, the world spinning in his mind. Cortana had sat on the floor next to in her tedium, varying between worried and amused, and trying to keep her feelings of quit pushed down.

"I fight on land." John finally pushed between his teeth resolving to keep his eyes closed. It had been fundamentally alien in the Domain, now it was alien, because he was on his own territory, in his original form, but it wasn't quite the same. The composition had left a thread of connection to the Domain, the slightest of hunch of something otherworldly that his mind was now trying to piece together with his original senses.

"Technically you were made for space combat." Cortana issued lightly, making Chief snort as a comeback.

Cortana leaned back against her hands, relaxing at John's improving condition. However, the passing of immediate danger also gave room to question the last day.

"I'm sorry, John. I really am." She finally said forlornly.

"You did what you were supposed to do." He resolved to say, eyes still closed.

As the following silence stretched on, John opened his eyes, looking at the Forerunner built ceiling above them, "I'm glad you did." He turned his head so that his blue eyes met hers.

She was still unsure, would most likely be for a very long time until he'd learned to get accustomed to the Domain, to come to terms with what all these changes meant. She could only hold his gaze for a moment before evading her eyes to the ivory-colored walls, tears once again in her eyes.

"We'll be fine," he assured her.

Cortana, however, let out a wistful laugh. "You still think so?" she asked and turned her head to look at him, longing behind her eyes.

Despite the spinning, he felt an odd sense of self-satisfaction that made the corner of his mouth curve in a smile, "I do."

* * *

A/N: I consider Kraven Ergeist's description on Cortana composing Chief and how he would perceive the Domain in The Daybreak's Bell (ff . net) as the closest thing to a canon in those aspects. Absolutely great fic! I hope I did the concepts justice and managed to approach them in a novel way.


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